MIXED COMPOSTS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1854, 31 January 1880, Page 3

MIXED COMPOSTS.

[From the “ Field,’’] When a learner, I remember the gardener’s ideal of a correct compost for the culture of many select plants was once composed of chopped pieces of fibry loam, peat, sand, and sometimes leaf soil ; but the two first were shaken free of loose particles as far as prac ticable, and then mixed with sand. On the potting bench such a compost looked perfection—soft, silky, rich, and open —and the plants also succeeded in it in a general way, their wants in other respects being attended to properly ; but I often found myself asking the question at times whether such composts were as good and as w ll mix<d as they seemed. In most soils used for potting pur poses sand is an important eleme -t. 1 s object is to keep the staple opeu by mixmg with the particles of the soil, but, mixed in the way above described io lumpy composts, it is almost inert in that r< spect for it does not mix minutely with the soil. This can easily be proved. Add a quantity of sand to a turfy compost of pert and loam, that has been chopped up by the spade, till it appears to have had enough, and afterwards rub the compost, fibre and a ! l, through a half-inch sieve, and the sand will to a great extent disappear, and what looked lixe a sandy compost before will appear to be changed into only a small percentage of it. The reason is plain ; the sifting of the soil has simply mixed it thoroughly, which was not the case before. Those who have to water plants have often hern struck wi h the small quantity of sand which is left on the surface of the pot after watering turfy composts. The sand disappears, is washed in and away, and the round nodules of peat and loam only remain, washed clean. If the soil be turned out of the pot sometime afterwards, the scantiness of the sand will be equally noticeable throughout the whole ball. What becomes of the sand I am not prepared to say. but no doubt a good part of it fii.ds its way through the drainage, and the decomposition of the compost probably causf-s it to become more amalgamated with the same. Probably, too, a fair proportion never finds its way into the pot, as in potting with a turfy compost, the object is to pack the loot with the pieces of fibre as much as possible, and which are only dusted over with eand, while most of it is left behind in the small on the bench. What happens in the case of sand happens also in a worse degree with the peat and loam, which cannot be so intimately incorE orated with each other as could be desired y any method ; but in lumpy c> imports they can hardly be said to have mix d>t all. In the case of large plants and tro-s, perhaps it is not necessary to be sr particular. Still, if mixed soils are necessary to the culture of plants—if the necessity of mixing is admitted in principle—then it follows that the more effectually it is accomplished the better ; and, when it happen) to be as easy to do the right as the wrong way, the wise plan is to adopt the former. Acting on these lines, we have always been particular in rubbing down composts to a line texture, that was intended for choice subjects. Con sequently our composts for such plants as heaths, pelargoniums, azaleas, and such like have generally looked to be much finer and closer than a compost that has only been chopped up by the spade ; but it is n it so in reality, for the fibre is all there, only, having been rubbed through a sieve, it has got more minutely divided and incorporated with the other ingredients, and I find that it takes more sand in proportion to lighten such composts sufficiently. 1" or does this qnestion of mixing our composts thoroughly relate only to the different soils used, but quite as particularly to manures that are applied in a powdered state, as many of them are nowa days, such as bone dust and the artificial manures. I think it was Dr Lindley, who, long ago, pointed out the importance of all soils being finely divided and comminuted, so as to present the food to plants in the readiest and most accessible form. This minute division and commingling he held to be one of the surest means of promoting abundance of those feeding rootlets, so necessary to a healthy and fruitful condition in any plant I am no' sure that he recommended such fine composts for the vine and other fruit trees at a period when spongy borders were all the rage, and later experience has proved that the doctor was pretty near the mark, I do not suppose any experienced grape grower would now venture to assert that the vine will not thrive as well, and as long in a close and fine soi l , as it will in one of fibry turf, provided it is regularly and equally maunn d, and the same fact has been demonstrated beyond a doubt in the

case of all stone fruits, and also in apples and pears. I am by no means a stickler on practical subjects connected with gardening, nor inclined to draw the line very fine in such matters ; but the subject of composts for plant culture is one which I think there may be room to speak about. The question may be safely left in the hands of experienced cultivators, but to the vast number of readers who shape their practice weekly by what they read in the papers, it is a different matter. It is well known that soils vary rauuh in different localities. A loam in one place maybe good and suitable, but so heavy and tenacious, or so light, that the directions about ameliorating it with other composts, such as peat or sand, &0., in order to render it fit for potting purposes, may he quite misleading r-r even useless. I have had to deal with loams so light and fibry that the addition of sand or peat, or any other opening materials, would have been more than useless ; and again, I have used loams that required the addition only of sand and leaf soil in sufficient quantity to render them fit for any purposes, being good and rich, but too heavy To bring the pure loam procurable here into a condition fit for potting many kinds of stove and greenhouse plants, both much sand and peat has to be added, and unless the loam is rubbed down into a fine stat u , filv-e and all, anyone but those acquainted with it would err in the quantity of opening materials added. Judiciously lightened, however, it makes an excellent staple for many different subjects, and this too without discarding the finer portion of the loam, and using only the fibry portion. Much of our heaps is, indeed, used after it has been laid up sometime, and vice versa, just according to our demands. lam unable to say that the fresh fibry tnrf produces better results in any wayjthan that which has entirely rotted in the heap, bat which contains all its richness and good qualities in other respects.